interrobang

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See also: Interrobang

English

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WOTD – 10 February 2017
an interrobang

Etymology

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A blend of French (point d’)interrogation (“question mark”) or the equivalent term in another Romance language + bang (“exclamation mark, exclamation point”), coined in a 1962 article in the journal TYPEtalks[1] by American advertising executive Martin Kiehra Speckter (1915–1988), who invented the symbol.[2]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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interrobang (plural interrobangs)

  1. The nonstandard punctuation mark ⟨‽⟩ (a combination of ⟨?⟩ and ⟨!⟩), which may be used at the end of a sentence to express excitement or disbelief, or to indicate that it is a rhetorical question. [from 1962.]
    • 1968 November 15, William Zinsser, “For clear expression: Try words: The interrobang”, in Life, volume 65, number 20, Chicago, Ill., New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 24:
      Has anyone seen an interrobang? It's a newly invented punctuation mark that looks like this: ‽ A question mark with an exclamation point superimposed, it's meant to convey that nuance of feeling—a mixture of query and surprise—that people have in mind when they say "Really?", also meaning "Really!", or "How about that‽" […] The cure for incredibility is not more punctuation, but more plain talk. We don't need symbols like the interrobang that merely express our perpetual disbelief. We need plain words to express plain truths.
    • 2011 September, Simon Garfield, “Breaking the Rules”, in Just My Type: A Book About Fonts, New York, N.Y.: Gotham Books, Penguin Group, →ISBN, page 268:
      The Interrobang is not a font – just a single character. Yet it is so powerful a symbol, and such a flawed and original concept, that it deserves a place alongside the most adventurous typographic innovations of the last century. It is an exclamation mark and a question mark combined, a ligature looping the curve of the interrogation with the downward force of the expletive (which compositors and printers have traditionally called a bang). When they meld, they need only one round point at their base.
    • 2013, Keith Houston, “The Interrobang”, in Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks, New York, N.Y.: W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, pages 28–29:
      Popular as it was with writers and admen, the interrobang faced a struggle for mainstream acceptance. Simulating an interrobang on a typewriter was possible, if clumsy—type "?" and then overstrike it with "!"—but for typesetters creating a printed document, there was no such shortcut. Those advertisements, brochures, and books that actually honored the writer's use of the character had to be set using handcrafted interrobangs, either drawn by an illustrator or sculpted from rubber cement with a razor blade.
    • 2014, John Senior, “Idea 79: The Interabang!?”, in 100 Ideas for Secondary Teachers: Gifted and Talented, London: Bloomsbury Education, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 94:
      Introduce the notion of combining punctuation marks in new ways. Explain the Interabang and its use as a nonstandard punctuation mark intended to combine the functions of the question mark and the exclamation mark. Allowing your students the use of all keyboard symbols to create additional punctuation forms, what other punctuation combinations would prove useful in allowing greater expression through punctuation?
  2. (rare) A combination of a question mark and an exclamation mark; ⟨!?⟩ or ⟨?!⟩.
    • 2014, Jamie Frater, “Top 10 Fascinating Typographical Origins”, in Listverse.com’s Ultimate Book of Bizarre Lists: Fascinating Facts and Astounding Trivia on Movies, Music, Crime, Celebrities, History and More, Berkeley, Calif.: Ulysses Press, →ISBN, Culture section, page 369:
      Interrobang — !?, ?!, or ‽ / What?! You’ve never heard of the interrobang!? Really? Well, now you have, so all is forgiven. An interrobang is […] used to end sentences where you really want both the exclamation point and the question mark. […] The word is used to describe both the two side by side (!? or ?!) or the combined symbol (‽).
    • 2014, Kam-yiu S. Pang, “‘Overthrowing’ Yesterday’s ICM: (Re)focusing of Meaning in a Hong Kong Chinese (Cantonese) Constructional Idiom”, in Masataka Yamaguchi, Dennis Tay, Benjamin Blount, editors, Approaches to Language, Culture, and Cognition: The Intersection of Cognitive Linguistics and Linguistic Anthropology, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, Part I (Cognitive Linguistic Approaches to Language and Culture), section 2 (Constructional idioms), page 70:
      For instance, Taylor (2002: 568–570) discusses the ‘incredulity response construction’ in English as an example of a CI, exemplified by expressions such as Him write a novel?! and Me worry?! The CI has the schematic form of [nomsbj vinf (np)?!]. When written, it is often punctuated with an interrobang (‽ or ?!).
    • 2019, Ria Voros, chapter 27, in The Center of the Universe, Toronto, Ont.: KCP Loft, published 2024, →ISBN, page 142:
      My Jungle page had become bloated with messages since the press conference — notes from people at school, neighbors and strangers. A few people from Star Club left nice comments, and a few classmates wrote “so sorry to hear” messages. Even an interrobang-filled rant from Sasha Rosenberg?!
    • 2022, Choir Korneli Leviyey, “2007”, in Traumaturgy: The Abandoned Autobiography, page 53:
      It was not until entering the fourth movement when he would finally stop all strumming to interject with an interrobang: “WHERE is that voice COMING from!?”
    • 2024 February 29, Nick Parlow, “Writing Our First Script – Turning Simple Cmdlets into Reusable Code”, in PowerShell 7 Workshop: Learn How to Program with PowerShell 7 on Windows, Linux, and the Raspberry Pi, Birmingham, West Midlands: Packt Publishing, →ISBN, Part 2 (Scripting and Toolmaking), section “Providing help for our script”, subsection “Parameter help messages”, page 214:
      Now, when we run it without supplying a value for the $City parameter, we get a message suggesting we type an interrobang (!?) for help: […]

Alternative forms

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Coordinate terms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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Punctuation

Verb

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interrobang (third-person singular simple present interrobangs, present participle interrobanging, simple past and past participle interrobanged)

  1. (chiefly humorous) To exclaim and question at the same time.
    • 1998, Laura J. Mixon, Proxies‎[2], page 270:
      “I think I can help Carli, but I have to move fast. Federal agents are going to descend on this place like locusts in about twenty minutes, max, and they’ll detain everyone. It’ll be days, at least, before they’re done interrobanging around.”
    • 2009 12, Jacob Silvia, Qhoenix, Jacob P Silvia, →ISBN, page 190:
      "Qhoenix!?" interrobanged Lrig Lanoisnemid-Eno. "You can't do this!"
    • 2022 September 20, Randal Graham, Nether Regions, ECW Press, →ISBN:
      "Rhinnick worked with Dr. Peericks?!" gasped Ian, interrobanging like nobody's business.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:interrobang.

References

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  1. ^ Martin K. Speckter (1962 March–April) “Making a new point, or, how about that …”, in TYPEtalks: see Keith Houston (2013) “The Interrobang”, in Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks, New York, N.Y.: W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, pages 25–28.
  2. ^ “Martin K. Speckter, 73, creator of interrobang”, in The New York Times‎[1], 1988 February 16, archived from the original on 20 March 2016.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Portuguese

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English interrobang. See there for further details.

Pronunciation

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  • (Brazil) IPA(key): /ĩ.te.ʁoˈbɐ̃.ɡi/ [ĩ.te.hoˈbɐ̃.ɡi]
    • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA(key): /ĩ.te.ʁoˈbɐ̃.ɡi/ [ĩ.te.χoˈbɐ̃.ɡi]
    • (Southern Brazil) IPA(key): /ĩ.te.ʁoˈbɐ̃.ɡe/ [ĩ.te.hoˈbɐ̃.ɡe]
  • (Portugal) IPA(key): /ĩ.tɛ.ʁuˈbɐ̃.ɡɨ/ [ĩ.tɛ.ʁuˈβɐ̃.ɡɨ]

Noun

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interrobang m (plural interrobangs)

  1. (rare) interrobang (the punctuation mark ‽)
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